We weren’t there, but can presume that at his swearing in Gov. Mike Easley swore to uphold and defend the constitution of the state of North Carolina. Just as a reminder, Article I Section 10 goes something like: “Freedom of speech and of the press are two of the great bulwarks of liberty and therefore shall never be restrained, but every person shall be held responsible for their abuse.”

Drilling this down to the controversy over the executive branch’s handling of public records, we can only ask that the law of the land be followed and “every person” in the administration be held responsible for the destruction of legitimate public records, most certainly an abuse of the people’s right to know what their government is up to.

A lawsuit by a group of newspapers and other media aims to start that process and reverse what is apparently a policy of strategic secrecy. One case in point: the destruction of a note from the secretary of Health and Human Services to the governor regarding mental health reform. The spin is that it was a personal note, an excuse that is both clumsy and, given the subsequent collapse of the state’s mental health system, insulting.

Government at many levels is slipping into a more secretive way of doing business, reversing a decades-long trend toward greater sunshine. Accountability is impossible without transparency. It was a demand made when our constitution was drafted and one we must emphatically reiterate today.